A large group of arthropod animals including crabs, lobsters, shrimp, and barnacles, characterized by a hard external skeleton.
From Latin crustaceus meaning 'having a crust or shell,' from crusta (crust). Carl Linnaeus used this as the scientific name for the entire class of shell-bearing arthropods.
When scientists realized that crabs, lobsters, shrimp, and barnacles were all cousins with hard shells, they needed one name for the whole family—so they borrowed the Latin word for 'crusty' and literally called them 'the crusty animals.'
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